| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: Though we did not realize it then, Mrs. Harling was our audience
when we played, and we always looked to her for suggestions.
Nothing flattered one like her quick laugh.
Mr. Harling had a desk in his bedroom, and his own
easy-chair by the window, in which no one else ever sat.
On the nights when he was at home, I could see his shadow
on the blind, and it seemed to me an arrogant shadow.
Mrs. Harling paid no heed to anyone else if he was there.
Before he went to bed she always got him a lunch of smoked salmon
or anchovies and beer. He kept an alcohol lamp in his room,
and a French coffee-pot, and his wife made coffee for him
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: Mr. Sebright. ''Tis poor old Norrie Carthew,' he says."
"And what--what sort of a gentleman was this Mr. Carthew?" I
gasped.
"The ward-room steward told me he was come of the best
blood in England," was my friend's reply: "Eton and 'Arrow
bred;--and might have been a bar'net!"
"No, but to look at?" I corrected him.
"The same as you or me," was the uncompromising answer:
"not much to look at. I didn't know he was a gen'lem'n; but
then, I never see him cleaned up."
"How was that?" I cried. "O yes, I remember: he was sick all
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: long grass. I suppose the time was then about four or five
o'clock. I got up presently, walked perhaps half a mile with-
out meeting a soul, and then lay down again in the shadow of
a hedge. I seem to remember talking, wanderingly, to myself
during that last spurt. I was also very thirsty, and bitterly
regretful I had drunk no more water. It is a curious thing
that I felt angry with my wife; I cannot account for it,
but my impotent desire to reach Leatherhead worried me
excessively.
I do not clearly remember the arrival of the curate, so that
probably I dozed. I became aware of him as a seated figure
War of the Worlds |
